Makai Kingdom due in Europe

By Tom Bramwell Published 28 July, 2005

Disgaea fans take note!

Koei plans to continue its admirable policy of releasing Nippon Ichi's delightful role-playing games in Europe by publishing Makai Kingdom: Chronicle of the Sacred Tome for PS2 on October 28th.

Makai Kingdom continues to explore the Netherworld that gamers encountered in the highly acclaimed Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, another Koei release in Europe, and promises to be just as amusing and inventive as its forerunner.

Although at first glance it sounds like the usual waffle - Netherworld ruler Lord Zetta is cast out, is fused with a Sacred Tome, and has to try and regain his lands while fending off the machinations of three evil overlords - it should be a lot more interesting and amusing than that.

Unlike Square Enix's grandstanding Final Fantasy efforts, which rely on visual splendour as much as anything to underscore their grandiosity, Makai Kingdom appears quite old-fashioned - but uses this approach to allow for randomly generated battle maps.

Fighting the bad guys of the day will involve commanding an army - summoning them (using the 'INVITE system') to your side for support - and fending off nasties using everything from broadswords to rocket launchers. It also borrows characteristics from Nippon Ichi's other titles, including another game we liked, Phantom Brave.

On the whole then, "one for the fans", but as long as Koei keeps channelling Nippon Ichi in this territory, we're confident there will be decidedly more of them when the next chapter rolls around. Bless you, Koei.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Teeth #1 7 years ago

    w00t!

  • Blerk #2 7 years ago

    Get in!

    /dance of happiness

  • TILT #3 7 years ago

    It would be nice if they kept the original japanese voices this time, unlike Disgaea.

  • Blerk #4 7 years ago

    While it would be nice to have the Japanese voices as well, I don't think I'd use them. The US dubs contain some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game. Disgaea's voice acting is utterly fantastic.

  • SpaceKoala #5 7 years ago

    I have to agree with Blerk about Disgaea's voice acting - it was good stuff.

    Was it only the US version of Disgaea that had both US and Japanese audio tracks?

  • Blerk #6 7 years ago

    Yes, they removed the Japanese audio tracks from the PAL version (allegedly) at the request of Sony Europe. Hence it fitting on a CD-ROM instead of the DVD-ROM that the US version used.

  • TILT #7 7 years ago

    I didn't like the dub, but at least, it seems they didn't piss off quite as many people as I expected by leaving the original voices out. Less money from me for Sony Europe, more for Sony America, but I think they can live with that. ;-)

  • tengu #8 7 years ago

    W00T! Another one for me to not bother with :)

    I do find the swapping DVDs for CDs thing quite distasteful really, but I expect no better from Sony Europe.

  • sleepless #9 7 years ago

    The US dubs contain some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game.

    Disgaea, Psychonauts and few others belong to the games voice acting elite....for me

  • Mint #10 7 years ago

    Nice, any word on ATelier Iris yet?

  • Blerk #11 7 years ago

    Nice, any word on ATelier Iris yet?

    Yes please!

    /continues to pray at Koei shrine

  • Danj #12 7 years ago

    " Yes, they removed the Japanese audio tracks from the PAL version (allegedly) at the request of Sony Europe."

    I'd like to point out that it's a pretty solid allegation though, coming as it does from Koei themselves - I've emailed them about it in the past and that was essentially the response I got.

  • valli #13 7 years ago

    The US dubs are great in MK, no fear. Everything's there, including the lovely over-the-top "Hahahahahhahahahahaha"s. \o/

    The game's ace too btw, I find it better than Disgaea. An overwhelming amount of items and features, this is one monster of a game.